The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back, thanks to a new life given by new owner Nickelodeon. There’s a great new cartoon, an accompanying toyline, an unrelated but nevertheless good new comic book from IDW, and an upcoming film produced by Michael Bay which leads to cringing whenever something is said about it.

Well, you can’t win them all.

Naturally, a revival wouldn’t be complete in this day and age without a new video game to go with it, and that’s where Activision steps in.

This week, the company announced in a press release that it would be releasing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadow sometime this Summer for Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and PC via Steam. What, no Nintendo Wii U eShop? For all the flack that Nintendo gets about being “for kids,” it sure is strange to leave a kid-oriented franchise (indie comic origins notwithstanding) off of their console.

Here is the trailer they released with the announcement:

Despite looking nothing like it (beyond the fundamental look of the TMNT), Activision says this game is “inspired by Nickelodeon’s new hit animated series.” Described as a “third-person brawler”– which I’m assuming means something like the classic arcade titles, but in 3D– the game is set in New York City, and takes gamers through “articulated, true-to-life environments filled with action-packed adventures as Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

“Featuring an original hyper-realistic 3D-style, gamers can experience four-player online co-op play while stomping out the Foot Clan and unleashing turtle torment on any foe that gets in their way. With an immersive world, deep character development, and an intuitive, skill-based combat system built around combo-driven action, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows puts ‘Turtle Power’ in players’ hands.”

Perhaps making the lack of a Wii U release even more interesting is the fact that the game is being developed by Red Fly Studios, whose catalog of work (including Ghostbusters: The Video Game, the Mushroom Men series, and Star War: The Force Unleashed II) has mostly been for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS versions of other games.

Regardless of where it appears, perhaps the big thing that may make or break the game is fans getting used to the “hyper-realistic 3D style” they boast. In particular, the artistic-licensed addition of nostrils/noses (seen more clearly in the gallery below) might be a bit of an aesthetic hurdle for longtime fans to overcome.

Personally? I got used to the three toes in the new cartoon, and this… is growing on me. I may not actively like the change, but it bothers me less now than when I first saw it– it’s just sort of there.

Beyond that, it’s a matter of hoping that Activision and Red Fly can produce an experience worthy of the Turtles’ decades-long video game legacy– its early glory days, in particular. Activision has struck gold with some of its recent Transformers titles, and I personally enjoyed Red Fly’s version of Ghostbusters on the Wii, so I have some confidence that this could turn out well.